Marines assume EA-6B Prowler training

By SUE BOOK - Sun Journal Staff

Published: Friday, June 14, 2013 at 09:30 AM.

The 60-foot long aircraft with a 52-foot wingspan specializes in electronic countermeasures and is considered the primary tactical jamming aircraft for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. With design based on the A-6 Intruder airframe, it flies at top speed of 651 mph.

According to Naval Air Systems Command, its primary mission is to suppress enemy air defenses in support of
U.S.
and
U.S.
friendly strike aircraft and ground troops by interrupting the enemy’s electronic activity and gaining intelligence in the combat area.

The vacuum in electronic warfare capability that could be created by a 2019 Prowler sunset before the Marine Corps or Cherry Point takes delivery of the yet-unproven F-35 Joint Strike Fighter concerns some veteran pilots.

They have been lobbying Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and others on congressional armed services committees to include wording in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act to protect both the country’s tactical expeditionary electronic warfare capability and Cherry Point’s air assets in the pending gap.

CHERRY POINT — Training to keep the 1968 vintage EA-6B Prowler flying transferred Friday from the Navy to a 2nd Marine Air Wing squadron based at Cherry Point air station.

Training for the Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. twin-engine aircraft has previously been conducted for the Navy and Marine Corps by Navy Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.

In the change, the Marine Corps will re-designate one of its four EA-6B Prowler Marine tactical electronic warfare squadrons, VMAQ-1, based at Cherry Point, as an EA-6B replacement training squadron. The Prowler program, which has actively supported combat for Navy, Air Force and Marines in combat since the Vietnam War, is scheduled to sunset in 2019, and the Navy plans to retire its last EA-6B squadron in 2015.

The Washington state-based Navy Electronic Attack Squadron also conducts training for EA-18G Growler crews, and the fact that a West Coast, Navy base is getting the newer vintage aircraft concerns some with ties to the aircraft and base as the country rethinks its defense strategy.

Some, including a group of veteran Prowler pilots, had asked Congress to include wording in the Defense Appropriation bill.

While there has been no official confirmation, sources said that with the training mission comes at least four additional aircraft and plans to conduct some of the training flights from Bogue Field.

The three remaining Marine Corps VMAQ squadrons will continue to operate the EA-6B until they are deactivated.

The 60-foot long aircraft with a 52-foot wingspan specializes in electronic countermeasures and is considered the primary tactical jamming aircraft for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. With design based on the A-6 Intruder airframe, it flies at top speed of 651 mph.

According to Naval Air Systems Command, its primary mission is to suppress enemy air defenses in support of U.S. and U.S. friendly strike aircraft and ground troops by interrupting the enemy’s electronic activity and gaining intelligence in the combat area.

The vacuum in electronic warfare capability that could be created by a 2019 Prowler sunset before the Marine Corps or Cherry Point takes delivery of the yet-unproven F-35 Joint Strike Fighter concerns some veteran pilots.

They have been lobbying Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and others on congressional armed services committees to include wording in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act to protect both the country’s tactical expeditionary electronic warfare capability and Cherry Point’s air assets in the pending gap.